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Eric
January 13th, 2012, 03:00 PM
So lately, I've been thinking about my guitar stuff, feeling a little self-conscious about the amount of gear I have. I have amassed a significant number of pedals (13 at last count) and guitars (7 if you count bass and acoustic), and at best, I use one of them at any time.

I might count myself lucky to have such a wealth of nice guitars, but honestly, I feel a little self-indulgent. So I guess it brings up the question: what the right amount of gear to own? Is there a point at which there's no justification for owning more stuff? Does the role of music in your life dictate how much stuff you can reasonably own, or is it all about your internal level of austerity?

I'm one step above couch surfing these days, so I can't set up all of my stuff anyway, but 3 amps, 5 electrics, an acoustic, a bass, and a load of pedals seems like an awful lot of stuff for someone who doesn't gig. I'm considering going down to maybe 3 electrics, an acoustic, a delay, OD, distortion, reverb, tuner, looper and selling off an amph while I'm at it.

So am I crazy? Should I just be happy in my riches? Does anyone ever relate to the stuff that I'm saying? I suppose not, given the demographic here. Maybe you can chalk this up to random musings.

bcdon
January 13th, 2012, 03:38 PM
There is no right answer. If you think you have too many guitars/pedals sale them off. You are the ultimate judge as to what might be 'too much' for you. Simple as that.

Tig
January 13th, 2012, 05:55 PM
Some might call you crazy, but around here, you're normal and average!

As long as you're managing your responsibilities and finances while balancing your purchases, who can fault you?

Bookkeeper's Son
January 13th, 2012, 06:40 PM
I'm curious, Eric - do you use all of it regularly? I have only 1 acoustic, 2 electrics, and 1 amp, and sometimes I wonder if that's even too much because I don't play all that much. If I had more, it would seem kinda dumb to me.

Tig
January 13th, 2012, 07:31 PM
I have only 1 acoustic, 2 electrics, and 1 amp, and sometimes I wonder if that's even too much because I don't play all that much. If I had more, it would seem kinda dumb to me.

Careful with your posting... If any of our wives read this, we're in deep trouble! http://markweinguitarlessons.com/forums/images/smilies/eek.gif

Bookkeeper's Son
January 13th, 2012, 07:41 PM
Sorry, Tig - I forgot about the PW crowd. :notme

Tig
January 13th, 2012, 08:11 PM
Yo, you're the one with only 3 guitars and 1 amp! :poke
PW my arse... well, maybe just a bit...

(edit: not sure what happened to my typo earlier)

Retro Hound
January 13th, 2012, 08:48 PM
I always did think the Hello Kitty was unnecessary. :poke

Bookkeeper's Son
January 13th, 2012, 09:50 PM
Luckily, the wife has nothing to do with how much gear I do or don't have - she is an intelligent, confident, and assertive woman, but not a nag. We don't tell each other what is permissable.

Spudman
January 13th, 2012, 09:51 PM
There, um, is, um, no such thing, as, um, too much.:nope

The point really is to get instruments, pedals and amphs that you love and enjoy playing. If they are paid for and not in the way around the house too much then keep them and play them when you feel like it. I absolutely love going into my closet and pulling out 4 or 5 guitars that I haven't played in a year. I really appreciate what I have, am glad that I got it don't feel the urge to go out and buy it because I've already have it.:agree

But if your house starts looking like an episode of Hoarders then you might want to seek professional help.

Zip
January 13th, 2012, 11:56 PM
Until the corner of your bedroom looks like this -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/smorgdonkey/IMG_0275.jpg
Don't worry about it, you're OK.....

deeaa
January 13th, 2012, 11:57 PM
I have often pondered the same, Eric.

I realize I enjoy buying and getting material things and gadgets hugely, but now and then I also get this feeling when I have gotten new stuff...a kind of moral hangover.
Sometimes it has been rather bad, even. I remember way back when I was a student, I got some extra money, and I blew it all and then some just to get dual SLI graphics cards (Voodoo 2 at that time, the predecessor of the modern SLI idea back in the 90's)...I felt terrible for days after spending all that money purely for gaming enjoyment, and something I really did not need. Despite it was no problem, it really was 'extra' money.

Back to guitars. I try to keep it down some. I have only ten at the moment, and really that means only four really good electrics, plus one I'm pondering of either rebuilding completely and converting to hardtail, and two acoustics, a bass and two self-made curiosities.

But, is that too much? I have this need to ditch something, and it's almost as big an itch as to get something new, and/or to rebuild that Yamaha into a clone of my Davette.

Pedals - that's easy...I've sold off all of them except the wah and the tuner plus a noisegate. I don't need the rest with the JVM. Oh actually I kept the Marshall compressor though, I figured it might come in handy some day. But I don't need the OD pedals etc. any more, so off they go. Why keep them? Over the years I have owned likely at least three dozen pedals, and I have likely made more money selling them off than buying them - I pretty much buy all my gear second-hand and only when good opportunity arises, like a pedal for $20 I know I can sell some day for $50. And I have.

Lately I have actually been pretty much exclusively playing the modded Prophecy SG I got quite recently. It's a helluva nice guitar now, and I suppose since I played gibson scale for well over a decade in bands, I just feel right at home with it, and the neck and everything is just perfect for me.

Thus I have pondered getting another SG, and if I do...it'd have to be another Prophecy, an EX this time though. Because Gibsons just don't compare - at least I haven't met a comparable model with such a fast neck and 24 frets with Gibson, and IMO it would make no sense to buy a $1500 guitar and then swap the pickups anyway...so a Prophecy would seem to be the only one to get.

However, that would land me again with way too many guitars.

- I can't sell the hotrod Squire; nice as it is, it's my punk beater nobody will pay good money for, plus I definitely want to keep a maple neck axe.
- I cant see the Stratoblaster; it's a superb Strat with a great neck my good friend built - again resale value is way low compared to how great a guitar it is.
- I definitely can't sell the Davette, since it's pretty much a perfect guitar 4 me, if strat scale though - still it is the most stable and easy-playing and unique guitar I could have.
- Won't sell the Prophecy either, as it's becoming my main axe rapidly
- Can't sell the handmade ones of course, rather keep them as ornaments if nothing else.

That leaves the Floyd-equipped Yamaha beater...I don't really need it. It could fetch maybe $160 or something. I could sell it, or swap for a nice 3/4 size electric in hopes either of the boys will at some point get into playing ...but then again it has a great neck, and it would make for a great base for putting in a thick maple cap for instance and hardtail coversion, sand and re-lacquer the neck and all, some fret work...would make a great project and I'm sure it would become a great guitar indeed...just like the davette, only this one is Gibson scale to boot!

So I guess I'm keeping it for that time I get a terrible urge to build something again.

Sigh.

I suppose I have sufficiently proven myself I don't have too many guitars and could use another Prophecy as well :-)

piebaldpython
January 14th, 2012, 12:35 AM
As long as you're managing your responsibilities and finances while balancing your purchases, who can fault you?

+1.......In my case, while I didn't have much time to play, the $$$$$'s (thanks to mucho OT) were available to get some awesome drool-worthy custom made lap steels. Ya know, for the future when the OT dries up and I've got more time to PLAY.

Eric
January 14th, 2012, 07:46 AM
I'm curious, Eric - do you use all of it regularly? I have only 1 acoustic, 2 electrics, and 1 amp, and sometimes I wonder if that's even too much because I don't play all that much. If I had more, it would seem kinda dumb to me.
No, and that's part of the issue. Part of it is that right now my wife and I are in temporary living conditions (staying with friends), so it's impossible to set everything up and therefore impossible to play them all. But even if I did have it all accessible, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't play all of the guitars.

What I'd probably like to do is to have 2 electrics and an acoustic with 2 amps and the basics for pedals (listed in the original posting). But deeaa's post articulates it perfectly: you can always make a case for why you need to keep all of your guitars, and the more customized they are, the more difficult it is to sell them, since they won't sell for anything. But then you're left with a bunch of guitars, some of which you rarely play.

What I think will end up happening is I'll just hold the line until we have our own place and I can set everything up. After that, I'll look at what I rarely/never play and make some decisions at that point. I guess there are worse problems in the world than having too many guitars, but it does make me feel a little self-indulgent.

Katastrophe
January 15th, 2012, 07:33 PM
So am I crazy? Should I just be happy in my riches? Does anyone ever relate to the stuff that I'm saying? I suppose not, given the demographic here. Maybe you can chalk this up to random musings.


Question #1: Yes. ;)
Question #2: Yes.
Question #3: Yes.

Keep what ya got, until some other GAS inducing item comes along. Then you can sell it off, and get new gear without having to come up with extra cash.

Spudman
January 15th, 2012, 07:47 PM
Keep what ya got, until some other GAS inducing item comes along. Then you can sell it off, and get new gear without having to come up with extra cash.

Sagely words indeed.

riverrick
January 15th, 2012, 10:29 PM
I can really relate to this subject Eric. I'm sure I have way too much gear. For being an old man who just sits in his room and plays, never gigs and only jams with a nephew once in a great while. The wife says you can only play one at a time. So why do you need another guitar??? 18 at present. Not to mention I don't know how may pedals. To clean up some of the pedal clutter I got a Line 6 M5 modeler. With that said still have 9 pedals plus a looper. The guitars are works of art to me. Sure there are some get played more than others. At the moment 2 are in cases and don't get played at all. All the rest are on display. And there are times that I get to feeling guilty about all this material stuff. But what the heck. Life is short. And at this stage of my life this is what I want to do. Was hoping one of my grand kids would take up guitar, in fact gave him one of my Teles some pedals, & an amp. He got into it for a while but not so much now. So Eric you have to do what feels right for you. I sometimes think about selling some of them, but I'm sure I would regret it down the road.

deeaa
January 16th, 2012, 01:18 AM
I have started to think I'm not really an indulgent person at all, but quite contrary. I may be a bit of a miser actually, despite I like to buy all kinds of new toys now and then.

But, I seem to be quite strict on myself on what can or can I not afford. I mean, we're not rich by any standards, we make maybe a tad over 100k a year and that's more than we have in mortgages and loans and way way less than the values of the properties we own, so we're quite OK in that respect with no worries, although at the end of each month I'm always down to using my Mastercard for even daily purchases. And I can't seem to justify getting a newer car. My current one is 12 years old and has 350k on the clock but it works fine. Not getting the neighbors jealous, but works. And I would certainly like a nice, rather new car, something I'd really like myself, if only once in my life. Every week I'm eyeing how much does a nice '09 or '10 BMW 320 or 520 diesel engine Station Wagon cost at the moment, as that's the car I'm set on currently as my next ride, if I can afford it some day.

Still, I'd simply hate to buy a car with loaned money, because I've calculated if I buy a car that costs, say, 25k, and loan most of it, the final amount is like 34k at the end that I've paid for it, even with the lowest interests out there. That's pretty insane to me, I can rather wait for a few years and save up for a new car, and when the old one breaks, I'll buy such a car I have money down for, with no need for financing. I just fear it'll be much less than I have saved up at that time.

Same with guitars. I could buy most any guitar I wanted if I really wanted. When I was a student, I bought a guitar that cost my year's salary basically, and felt fine about it, but now I'm cringing to buy stuff that costs the equal amount of money I spend on lunches in a matter of weeks. Strange.

Somehow I seem to get tighter and tighter with the money every passing year, and less and less inclined to pay for guitars etc. and rather spend more money in home improvements really. I guess I'm just getting old.

Ch0jin
January 16th, 2012, 01:26 AM
In one respect you are fortunate to have this dilemma, as I'm sure you are aware.

One of the guys I jam with (and one from the past) buys and sells gear so abruptly due to financial constraints I never really know what he's going to show up with next. First jam he brought a bass rig. Second jam a guitar rig. "Umm, What happened to the bass gear?" "Oh I sold all that, needed the cash".....

Eric
January 16th, 2012, 07:30 AM
Somehow I seem to get tighter and tighter with the money every passing year, and less and less inclined to pay for guitars etc. and rather spend more money in home improvements really. I guess I'm just getting old.
You and me both. I agree with most of what you just said. My wife and I were just talking about this stuff last night: how you might have things you like, but if you're honest with yourself, you really don't have a need for it. For instance, we got these pretty nice daypacks for our wedding almost 2 years ago that was a really thoughtful gift from her uncle. When we moved everything into storage recently, we considered getting rid of them until we googled how much they were worth: $120 a piece. So now they're in storage, still in the plastic, with two other very nice daypacks that we already have and use for all of our hiking and camping currently. So why keep them? I don't know. We shouldn't, but it's hard to get rid of them.

It's that stupid compulsion to justify keeping things that I would like to break myself of. For some, they don't mind it, and I have no issue with them having loads of stuff, but I find it to be this thing that exerts a little control over me. And I don't like that. I realize that I'm fortunate for having the option to have all of this stuff, but that doesn't change the fact that it's easy for me to get wrapped up in it. Guess I'll just keep chipping away at it and maybe find a balance eventually.

Commodore 64
January 16th, 2012, 09:06 AM
I'm finding that building/repairing stuff helps fill some of the GAS void. I'm working on a Dean EVO, (LP Clone, Czech Made), and it's a really, really nice player. I wish I had one, but at least I got to play this one for a couple weeks. Really digging the Pearly Gates PUPs in it.

Fixing my Pro Jr. was pretty fun, I learned a lot and now have a pretty sweet amp. That was good for a few months of satisfaction. It's been 8 weeks since I decided to build a 5E3 and 12-inch speaker cab. Yesterday I got the cab done. I will need to build another in the spring, this one was a right PITA, but I learned a ton and it works, for now. Now I can move on the the 5E3 bit, I started drilling out the chassis yesterday, this is a PITA too. I can't wait until the fun part (soldering components). I've got some photos ready, I'm thinking I'll maybe do my first blog here.

So, I guess, in my mind, the amp building/guitar repairing stuff is some kind of justification for GAS. I feel like I'm learning a lot and that maybe at some point, I'll be able to fund (some) gear purchases by using my tech skills. Already, I've made $60 and been given a Samick Ray Benson Tele, a Samick Strat, and a Samick Bass in return for my services. It also gets me into musician circles in my hometown, which is pretty cool too.

Eric
January 16th, 2012, 09:22 AM
I'm finding that building/repairing stuff helps fill some of the GAS void. I'm working on a Dean EVO, (LP Clone, Czech Made), and it's a really, really nice player. I wish I had one, but at least I got to play this one for a couple weeks. Really digging the Pearly Gates PUPs in it.

Fixing my Pro Jr. was pretty fun, I learned a lot and now have a pretty sweet amp. That was good for a few months of satisfaction. It's been 8 weeks since I decided to build a 5E3 and 12-inch speaker cab. Yesterday I got the cab done. I will need to build another in the spring, this one was a right PITA, but I learned a ton and it works, for now. Now I can move on the the 5E3 bit, I started drilling out the chassis yesterday, this is a PITA too. I can't wait until the fun part (soldering components). I've got some photos ready, I'm thinking I'll maybe do my first blog here.

So, I guess, in my mind, the amp building/guitar repairing stuff is some kind of justification for GAS. I feel like I'm learning a lot and that maybe at some point, I'll be able to fund (some) gear purchases by using my tech skills. Already, I've made $60 and been given a Samick Ray Benson Tele, a Samick Strat, and a Samick Bass in return for my services. It also gets me into musician circles in my hometown, which is pretty cool too.
That's a good idea. It brings up a weird point, though: I don't feel like I have GAS. I haven't had any desire to own more stuff in a year or so -- maybe a modeler now and then and a reverb pedal, but I got a reverb pedal and like it, and I never bought a modeler. I just somehow ended up with a bunch of stuff. Still, if I get fidgety later on, it seems like a good idea to start building stuff. I'm way behind you in terms of my repair skills, but I recently redid my hello kitty guitar, which taught me a good bit about wiring, so I get what you're saying.

cebreez
January 24th, 2012, 05:14 PM
I'm finding that building/repairing stuff helps fill some of the GAS void.

Or in my case, the financial one! I love to fix and repair things. For as long as I can remember I've dabbled in electronics and I am a pretty decent woodworker, but it wasn't until I starting wanting gear that cost way too much money that I started building or restoring guitars and pedals. And yes... it keeps me buying guitars and pedals. But I still want them!!

tunghaichuan
January 25th, 2012, 09:24 AM
Or in my case, the financial one! I love to fix and repair things. For as long as I can remember I've dabbled in electronics and I am a pretty decent woodworker, but it wasn't until I starting wanting gear that cost way too much money that I started building or restoring guitars and pedals. And yes... it keeps me buying guitars and pedals. But I still want them!!

In my case, I got into building my own amps because I couldn't afford to buy a http://www.amptone.com/himu5-5.htm amp, which was a nice take on the Fender Champ, but with high gain capabilities. It was a nice hand-wired, true point-to-point, American made amp which now seems like a steal at $440. I started building Champ-style amps and it snowballed from there. Now I've got a room full of parts, over 1,00 tubes, lots of caps, resistors, chassis and other associated parts. I'm going to be downsizing soon. It's been a while since I built my last amp and I'm going to be moving to a smaller place soon. It's been a case of the junk owning me.

I've had a blast and learned a lot, though.

Pickngrin
January 25th, 2012, 06:34 PM
Eric, I have pondered the same question many times. I also factored my skill level (lack thereof) into it, questioning whether I play well enough to have certain gear and whether I make "good enough" use of it. I have a few friends that amass gear much more compulsively and expensively than I do. That said, I think that I've come to a better place with the question. I don't spend a lot on my gear for the most part, and I do enjoy playing with it. Playing with other people makes having the gear seem more worthwhile to me -- not that playing alone in one's abode isn't worthwhile. Clearly this is a very individual matter.

Retro Hound
January 26th, 2012, 08:25 AM
I wish there was a "gear library" where I could just check stuff out for a few weeks and see what it sounds like, how it plays, etc. I don't need to "own" a lot of stuff, but I love to mess with stuff.

Eric
January 26th, 2012, 08:32 AM
I wish there was a "gear library" where I could just check stuff out for a few weeks and see what it sounds like, how it plays, etc. I don't need to "own" a lot of stuff, but I love to mess with stuff.
I was just talking about that exact same thing recently with my wife. I think someone in another thread (the environmental one) mentioned how the best way to conserve resources is to buy only one guitar, which I agree with. The problem is that when I was starting off, I had no fricking clue which guitar I wanted or how they sounded or anything, so there's a certain amount of churn necessary to be able to figure out what that one guitar is. The same could be said for pedals, amps, etc. A guitar library would be an incredible thing, though I'm not sure if it would work, since there's a certain amount of maturity required to figure out what you like and stick with it. A maturity that I don't seem to have just yet.

Commodore 64
January 26th, 2012, 09:50 AM
There is a gear library. It's called Craig's List. It costs a fraction of buying new, and if you are selective, you can try lots of gear that can be moved on later...at minimal addition to your original expenditure.

cebreez
January 26th, 2012, 11:04 AM
There is a gear library. It's called Craig's List. It costs a fraction of buying new, and if you are selective, you can try lots of gear that can be moved on later...at minimal addition to your original expenditure.

I'm glad that's true in Ohio Commodore 64 but it is not true around here. I live too close to Nashville, TN and they think used means you knock off $10 and shut up about it. You can only get good deals on CL if your looking for really expensive gear at which point they will knock off $20. Seriously, I bought a Peavey Generations EXP brand new at the Music Store for $119. Can still get one brand new all day long for $189.(which is still overpriced) Just saw one on CL in Nashville for $300 used!

Back when I was playing in a band there were always several music stores on our routes where we could sit and sample new instruments. I would usually sit with one a minimum of 15 times before deciding whether to buy it. (I didn't buy many back then) Still can at Guitar Center, Sam Ash, World Music, and I'm sure there are others. But I know what you mean. You want to get it home, in private, where you can put it through its paces and see what it sounds like through your setup.